Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Rogers Sportsnet East Caters to Massholes --- Hates Old Ladies.

If you are anything like me, a trip to your significant other's grandparents can be a bit like a trip to church --- lots of polite conversation and feigned interest. Trips to one of my wife's grandmothers have always been a lot more tolerable because we have one major thing in common --- the Jays. For years this lady has never missed a game. She doesn't schedule events during a game and won't answer the phone unless the call is during a commercial break. She even keeps score for every game. I get a call from her every Spring where she asks me to print a TV schedule for the Jays and bring it with me to Easter dinner.

But thus far in the season, she's missed more than half of the games. Someone at Rogers Sportsnet made the decision to go "regional" in their baseball coverage. In a board room somewhere in Toronto someone decided that everyone east of Ontario should be watching Boston and New York games night after night unless they pony up the extra dough to get Digital Cable. So all of those senior citizen Jays fans out there on fixed incomes who pinch pennies to pay $58 a month for basic cable can fuck off as far as Rogers is concerned.

Tomorrow I'm going over to my wife's grandmothers place to install a digital box that I rented for her to give her a big part of her summer nights back. Then I'm switching to Bell.

The thing that irritated me the most about growing up in Nova Scotia (baseball-wise anyway) was that there were so many damn Red Sox fans around. Especially among the older people. Something about the Blue Jays not having been around long enough or some crap.

Anyway, it sucks, but I can kind of understand the bias toward Sox and Yanks coverage out there.

Regional broadcasting works fine for NHL Hockey but seems forced for MLB and NBA broadcasting in Canada. There are some traditional ties to the Red Sox and Yankees in Eastern Canada but that's also the case in every other part of Canada. There are more Red Sox and Yankees fans in Ontario than there are in all of Atlantic Canada. So there goes that argument.

My wife's Grandma is going through the exact same BS from Rogers here out west. She even says she's losing touch with the Jays, which is a big shame. I can't believe Rogers doesn't want to push their own product down all our throats.

I'm going to print this post off an give it to my Grandmother-in-law. She's going to think I wrote it. :-)

More and more lately, it seems, SNWest is showing friggin Yankees and Red Sox games in place of Jays broadcasts. I pay the extra 2 bucks a month (or whatever) to get the SN Pacific/Ontario package....but SNWest is the only channel of the bunch available to me in HD. A fairly minor complaint, I guess, but, yeah, fuck off Rogers.

At first I thought the wacky scheduling was due to hockey playoff commitments (Flames), thus unable to air Jays games at the same time...but here we are, end of June, and apparently Western Canada would rather tune in to Yanks/Nationals than Jays/Phillies (for example).

First, sorry Tao. I should look more closely at who wrote before commenting.

Second, I'm not saying it's right that SNEast is showing Yanks and Sox games over the Jays, just saying I can understand it.

Also, the traditional ties of those in the Maritimes to the Red Sox are strong enough that MLB has the Maritimes listed as part of Red Sox blackout nation. You can see the map here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Canadian_MLB_Blackout_map.PNG

Yeah there is a massive amount of Sox fans in and around the Halifax area. I grew up down there and finished University there before moving to Ontario.

It sucks true, but I can understand it.

But I will agree that Rogers are douches for not supplying all 4 of the Sportsnet channels in HD to all subscribers. It pisses me off. Why do Bell Customers get to watch whatever Sportsnet channel in HD but I am stuck watching only Ontario.

I do get all the jays games, But I like watching some of the Seattle and Angels games at night sometimes and Standard Def sucks in comparison

Just got back from 2 weeks spent on East coast. Had Jays-games withdrawal until visiting a friend with Bell satellite service. Guess promoting the team you own is secondary to making a few extra cable dollars. Reminds me of being "penny wise and pound foolish" Enjoy your Bell service.